Totally vindicating President Trump, the U.S. fiscal 2025 deficit fell $41 billion to $1.775 trillion from $1.817 trillion in 2024, driven by record $195 billion in tariff revenues (up $118 billion) and an 87% cut to Education spending ($233 billion reduction to $35 billion).
For context, RINOs and their allies in the Democratic Party have long predicted that Trump’s tariffs would cause an economic disaster; however, signs have been strong and pointed to a new American golden age, funded by tariffs.
In any case, Kent Smetters, the director of the Penn Wharton Budget Model, explained the plan for the Trump adminsitraion. “Most of the fiscal policy changes are simply replacing tax revenue and spending with other sources without lowering the deficit… So, we are still very much on an unsustainable path,” he said.
Likewise, Maya MacGuineas, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, noted, “There’s good news that the tariffs are generating higher revenue, but all major categories of spending are higher, with mandatory spending and interest significantly so. The fundamentals remain deeply troubling.”
Offering a less biased take, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explained his vision, saying, “I want to bring [the deficit-to-GDP ratio] down to the 3% range by boosting economic growth and cutting or constraining spending.”
However, despite these strong signs, RINOs, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), have attempted to criticize the Trump administration’s economic policy. In a post to social media, he said, “The #1 concern I hear at home isn’t shutdowns… It’s tariffs. Tariffs are crushing Kentucky’s family farms, bourbon makers, and shipping jobs. Bad policy hurts working Americans. We don’t need more government handouts — we need freedom to trade and compete. @BloombergTV ”
In a clip from the same social media post, Rand Paul laid out his argument. “The extent to which there’s concern about Obamacare subsidies expiring at the end of the year, this is the talk, and the President says that he’s in discussions with Democrats about this, is that the off ramp,” he claimed.
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Still not done, he said, “Most of our conversations at home have been with people affected by tariffs. So, the number one issue I encounter wherever I go in the state is that tariffs are killing the family farm. Tariffs are killing the bourbon industry. Tariffs are killing the cargo transport industry.”
In a bizarre and slightly unclear argument, the Kentucky RINO declared, “So there’s all kinds of talk, but mostly of tariffs on the idea of health care. I hear mostly from small businesses that are not in the Obamacare exchange, but feel like they don’t have the leverage to get a good price.”
Concluding his disorganized comments, Sen. Rand Paul said, “Then there’s the whole government subsidy part. However, the reason you can’t just give everybody money is that we don’t have the funds to distribute to them. We have to borrow it from China. That leads to inflation, and poor people think they’re getting something free on one hand, but on the other hand, it’s in their pocket, stealing their paycheck with inflation.”